


Colorado Calling

by hajo4354



Category: Veronica Mars (TV), Veronica Mars - All Media Types
Genre: Colorado au, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fake Dating, Logan is in the Air Force not the Navy, drugs are talked about but not used
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 10:01:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25967794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hajo4354/pseuds/hajo4354
Summary: Veronica works an intense corporate law job, bored with what she thought was her dream when she receives a call from an area code she's unfamiliar with. Logan needs her help, and soon she's off to his new home in Denver, Colorado, ready to help him unravel the mess he's found himself in.
Relationships: Logan Echolls/Veronica Mars
Comments: 92
Kudos: 99





	1. Chapter 1

Law wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, as Veronica saw it. At least not working corporate law, like she was doing now. Long hours, tedious work, fake coworkers, it wore on her. But it was paying her bills and putting a dent in her loans, so it wasn’t all bad. She hadn’t really made any tight friends out here anyway, so the long hours only cut into her binge-watching and pulp-reading time. 

She shifted the piles of papers on her desk to find the contract she was looking for, pulling out her red pen to make suggested edits in preparation for the strategy session later today. A ping from her computer notified her that the meeting had been moved to 7 that night. In frustration, she spun her chair around, looking at the photos she’d pinned up on her cubicle wall, ones that she had taken of Neptune, newer ones from New York, coming full circle back to the contract in front of her as she sighed. Another long night at the office. She hadn’t gotten home before 9 all week. 

“Veronica, did you see the email? Where do you want to order dinner from? Your turn to pick!” Veronica struggled to not roll her eyes at the high-pitched voice before flipping around to see Jenny, a fellow first-year associate.

“Sure, I’ll email around an excel sheet for orders, thanks.” Naturally the benefit of getting to pick where to eat came with the burden of organizing and placing the order, and almost made it more trouble than it was worth. 

Veronica picked at her lasagna later in the conference room while everyone haggled over phrasing and loopholes. She made her suggestions and they were well received, which caused Jenny and the other competitive junior assistants to stare daggers at her over their Italian food. She tried to enjoy her success. A couple more years and a thousand more meetings that went as well as this one and she’d be somewhere. The challenge of it all was usually enough to keep her going, but as she walked into her apartment at 10:30 and crashed into bed the little nagging voice that was always in her mind yelled a little louder--is this who you are?

The next day was the same; stacks of paper shuffled around, meetings moved forward and back, nonsensical emails with a long list of vapid replies as every junior associate tried to be the first in agreement in the email thread. Lunch breaks didn’t exist around here unless you were lucky enough to score a lunch meeting with a partner or a client. Veronica usually took a couple minutes to scroll on her phone while eating a salad, an action some of her more intense co-workers would have frowned upon as wasted time. Jenny had once walked in and been astonished to find that Veronica even had her phone out at all. “What if a partner walked by?” she incredulously asked in her grating tone. 

Veronica kept her phone on silent at work. It wasn’t like she lived a fast-paced life anymore where people needed to get in touch with her quickly. No, she was more accustomed to a text from Keith maybe, or a meme or two from Wallace or Mac. Today she pulled her phone from her bag and was surprised to see she had three missed calls and a voicemail. All three calls were from the same number that she didn’t have saved in her phone, with an area code she wasn’t familiar with. She plugged in her earbuds to listen to the message and sat up straighter when she heard the voice.

“Hey Veronica, it’s me, Logan. I realize you probably don’t have this number of mine so I’ll try not to take it personally that you didn’t answer.” She could practically hear his one sided smile.

“Uh, I know it’s been a while,” the message continued, “so I have no reason to think you’d help me, but can you give me a call back when you get a chance?”

Veronica took out her ear buds and ate a bite of salad, thinking. Obviously he needed something or he wouldn’t have reached out for the first time in, what, eight or nine years? Veronica did the math in her head. No, it had actually been a whole decade, 10 years since she had seen him last. At least he was polite enough to not ask for a favor in a message. She wasn’t sure she wanted to call him back, but if he called three times it might be something pretty urgent. She checked the time stamps on the calls--one hour apart, almost exactly--9:21, 10:25, 11:22 a.m. Well, if he was calling every hour in an attempt to catch her, she could probably expect another call shortly, it was 12:17 right now. She decided she’d answer if he called; she couldn’t just ignore that kind of desperation. 

Her phone out on her desk, she finished up her salad and pulled a fresh pile of papers in front of her, phone records she was parsing for some inane reason she’d already manage to become apathetic to. She highlighted along, watching the clock on her computer tick past 12:30. Guess it wasn’t that important, she thought, highlighting another row. 

12:34, her phone lit up, with the same unfamiliar area code. “Hello?” she answered after a few rings, refusing to seem like she was waiting for the call. She could picture Jenny straining to hear her conversation from the other side of the cubicle wall.

“Oh, I didn’t think you’d answer again, I was working on memorizing your voicemail message.”

“So you weren’t calling to talk to me?”

“I just figured you didn’t take calls from people you hadn’t heard from in 10 years.” He’d done the math like she had. His voice hadn’t changed, and she wondered what he looked like now, how he’d aged. Maybe he’d gained a ton of weight, maybe he’d gone bald. She tried not to picture the ways in which he might have gotten hotter. 

“What do you need, Logan?” It came out sounding a little more harsh than she’d intended and his voice became more serious.

“I think I might be in some trouble, Veronica.”

“Oh so you heard I’m a lawyer now and decided to call me for discount legal help?”

He was caught off-guard. “Oh, wow, I didn’t know you were a lawyer, congrats.” It was a half-hearted congratulations, he was obviously distracted. “No, I was kind of looking for some of that old fashioned Veronica help.”

Veronica was quiet for a moment. She’d left all of her investigating behind in Neptune. She wasn’t that person any more, she didn’t want to be that Veronica anymore. “Logan, I--”

Logan cut her off, already knowing that she wouldn’t want to do this favor for him, trying to get a head start on the convincing. “I know it’s not fair to ask for your help after all this time, and I know you left Neptune to get away from...everything.” Veronica thought it sounded like he was going to say “me.” Did he think that she left Neptune to get away from him? He had to know there had been more to everything, but maybe her leaving had hurt him more than she’d imagined it would. “I don’t know who else to trust that can help me, Veronica.”

“What’s going on? What kind of trouble are you in?”

“It’s kind of hard to explain.”

“Well I’m so glad you called me without a plan of how to tell me what’s going on.”

He paused, then spoke again. “There was this girl.” Veronica had witty comebacks galore already, but stayed silent as Logan slowly worked through the story. It sounded like he kept breaking to sip something, and Veronica hoped it was coffee and not whiskey. “I’ve been seeing her, off and on, just a casual thing. She’s, she…she’s missing. I haven’t heard from her in two weeks, no texts or calls back. Not even an email, I tried sending some thinking maybe she’d blocked me. Her place, no one answers, but all of her stuff is still there, I peeked in the windows. She’s just gone. I need your help.”

“I have to ask the most obvious question, have you gone to the police?”

“That’s part of the trouble, I can’t. She, uh, she’s on parole, so if the cops got wind of her being missing, even if she’s back for her next check in with her parole officer it won’t be good for her.”

“If something happened the parole officers can’t blame her, and finding her now is probably more important than the consequences later. What about her friends, her family, her job?”

“She just moved out here, no family left, no real friends who would really notice her gone after two weeks. She works from home, I’m not really sure on what, some sort of marketing for some tech company...Veronica I might be the only one who cares that she’s missing, I have to do something.”

“The police, you can go to the police.”

“Veronica...they’re going to think I did it.” His voice was quiet as he said it, like he was hoping he wasn’t going to have to mention that detail.  
“And why would that be?”

“We got in a fight, pretty publicly at a bar. She was pretty messed up, and we were yelling and got kicked out, and then it was a whole thing on the street, screaming. I swear, Veronica, we went our separate ways after that, she was so drunk I ordered her a Lyft home, made sure she got in it, and then I went home too. But I’m probably one of the last people to see her, and obviously it doesn’t look good for me. I swear I didn’t do anything though, I want to find her. I just can’t be the subject of an investigation right now. I’m in the Air Force, and I kind of am trying to be good at it, I can’t mess up my chance at a career over this.”

It was a lot to process. The Air Force? Her mind flashed to Logan in a uniform and she found the mental image distracting. She was surprised, it didn’t seem like him.

She shook her head even though he couldn’t see her. “I can’t just fly to California, I have a job in New York now.”

“I’m actually in Denver now, closer to the Academy.” Well that was news to her. She tried to picture Logan away from the waves and surfing; it was harder to imagine than him in a uniform.

“I don’t care where you live, I still have a job, which, by the way, people are going to notice me taking a long personal call at some point.”

“Please, I don’t mean to take you away from anything, but will you call me after work?”

She deliberated momentarily. “It’ll be late.”

“No worries, I’m two hours behind you.” He paused, and she was ready to hang up when he said, “It’s good to hear your voice, Veronica.”

She thought about how’d she felt when she heard his voicemail. “Yeah, good to hear yours too,” then she hung up.

She went back to highlighting. Missing girl, with Logan looking like he’s to blame? He was a magnet for false allegations; this was hardly the first charge laid against him. She wasn’t sure she trusted Logan fully, how could she? But was he crazy enough to participate in the disappearance of someone and then call her for help?

She had a million questions already, her mind turning over the new puzzle. What was this girl’s name, could she learn anything from her social accounts? Could Veronica track down this Lyft driver, get their story, confirm what Logan said? What about the bar, would people remember what happened? She sat back in her chair, trying to dislodge her own line of questioning, since it was pointless. She had no intention of flying to Colorado, of course. There was no way she could get the time off, even if she wanted to go. Face-time was so important the first year of the job, and she wasn’t going to let Jenny and her band of competitive associates get ahead of her while she was out gallivanting in the West with Logan Echolls. 

She put aside the phone records. Obviously they left too much room for her mind to wander. She had a brief due for one of the partners anyway, and felt sure that the legal jargon would keep her busy enough to not dwell on the impossible. She’d given up the PI life, the hardest part was not getting dragged back in. 

Several meetings later she was finally on her way home. She didn’t live too far away from the office, and she enjoyed the long walk most of the time, just not so much in the winter. Actual changing of the seasons and snow were fun at first after living in Southern California, but the novelty wore off. She’d endured the winters, slogging through slush and snow and cloudy months wondering if the sun would ever shine again. But now it was spring, and it was quite pleasant out. 

Veronica dialed Logan back. It was only 9 in Denver, that wasn’t that bad. 

“Veronica, thank you for calling.”

“I’m just calling to tell you no. I’m sure there are private detectives in Denver, if you want I can ask my dad if he’s got a recommendation. Someone actually in the business who isn’t, you know, a busy lawyer. They don’t look kindly on vacations in your first year at a firm.”

“Veronica, I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important. Please, just for the weekend. I’ll pay to fly you out, I’ll put you up in the nicest hotel, I’ll pay you whatever hourly rate you want, charge me as exorbitantly as you want. Just come for one weekend and help me.”

Veronica sighed. Was she going to be swayed by money? She did want to make it home for the holidays, or have her dad come out to New York. And when she was able to take vacations from work she wanted to have the money to go somewhere that wasn’t the contiguous U.S. She could tell herself it was the money she wanted, but part of her knew there were other reasons she was even daring to entertain this.

She pulled up her calendar on her phone. She didn’t have any actual meetings set up for the weekend. The partners liked to pretend that working on the weekends wasn’t expected, but when all the assignments were piled up the first year associates had to put in time behind a desk on the weekend. It was Wednesday now; if she worked hard enough and came in early, she could maybe get enough done to swing a weekend trip.

She took a deep breath. “I’ll need a late flight on Friday out of JFK, 8 or so. I need to be back Sunday night. I’ll invoice you after for the hourly work and expenses, but we are talking at least $200 an hour.” Before she could change her mind she added, “We only have this weekend, so we need to be as efficient as possible. Do you have a guest room? We can cut down on travel time and increase my accessibility if I stay at your place.”

“My guest room is just a murphy bed, but if you are cool with that then you are welcome to stay here. I’ll send the plane tickets to you, what’s your email address?”

Veronica gave him the info. “Now, I need you to tell me everything you can. Full name, friends, employer, whatever information you can about this woman. I need to do some prep work, which you will be charged for.”

“Of course, I wouldn’t expect anything less. Thanks, Veronica, I really appreciate you.”


	2. Chapter 2

Veronica almost changed her mind about helping Logan when her alarm went off an hour early Thursday morning. With copious amounts of caffeine she rolled into the office early, ready to dive into the case of one missing Trinity Marshall. She started with an email to Mac. 

_ Fancy making $200? Will you run a background check and get me everything you can on Trinity Marshall. DOB February 16, 1984. Current address 469 Forest St, Denver, CO 80224. Social media, employment history, criminal background, bank accounts, credit cards, whatever you can get me will help. _

She figured outsourcing some of the nitty gritty would save her some time. Mac wouldn’t even be up for a few hours so Veronica got started on one of several briefs she needed to get turned in by Friday. The hour before everyone else trickled into the office flew by, and Jenny poked her head in uninvited. “Veronica! You’re here so early!” Her annoying habit of turning every statement into an exclamation was especially grating this early in the morning. 

“Just trying to get a jump on some stuff, I need to get home to California this weekend for personal reasons.” There was no reason the office needed to know where she was really going. 

“Oh, like the thing that you were telling that person to go to the police about yesterday?”

Veronica gave her a patient smile. “Yeah, something like that.”

“Well I’m sure it’s important or you wouldn’t be missing work for it!” Jenny flounced out of the cubicle, and Veronica resisted the urge to yell after her.

Mac’s email came later in the day.

_ Am I allowed to ask what it’s for? It might help if I knew what you are looking for. I can get it to you tomorrow. _

Veronica thought about how her friends would react if she said she was doing PI work, and especially if it was for Logan. Should she tell Mac or just wait until it was all over and joke about what a dumb weekend it had ended up being? 

_ A friend asked for some help, they are paying me well. Trinity might be skipping out on something important. Any activity on cards or bank accounts could be extra helpful. Thank you! _

Veronica could always tell Mac later that it was Logan, after she herself figured out how she felt about doing it.

Mac came through in a big way on Friday. Logan hadn’t been sure of the details of Trinity’s parole, but Veronica had all the information now. It was a drug case. She claimed she had been holding onto the 700 grams of cocaine for someone else, but wouldn’t name who and took the fall. The guilty plea had worked out to five years because of unfair mandatory drug sentencing minimums, and she was out on parole after three served. She had to report to her officer once a month. Logan said she had talked to him a couple days before the night at the bar, so in about a week the police would know that she was gone. 

There hadn’t been any activity on any of Trinity’s accounts that Mac could find. Veronica had been hoping that maybe she was just on some vacation or sabbatical or walkabout and hadn’t told anyone, but if there wasn’t any credit card activity that no longer seemed likely. 

There also weren’t any updates to her social media, but she wasn’t that active to begin with. She had the same profile picture across all the platforms. She was slim, with long brown hair and freckled skin. She had a nose that was perhaps too small for her face, but it lent her an intriguing quality. She wasn’t conventionally pretty, but there was no doubt that she was beautiful. Her Instagram had sporadic photos of mountains and lakes, and her Facebook hadn’t been touched in a year and a half. Another dead end. 

Here was where it got interesting. 

_ It looks like she works at a company called Qwik Analytics. They have a website but it’s the vaguest thing I’ve ever seen, I’m not really sure what they do. I tried calling and the number isn’t real, the emails bounce. But all the people listed as working there are real people, I’ve checked them out a bit. Can you tell me what Trinity is supposed to be doing there? I’ll keep digging if you want.  _

Veronica was excited. There was definitely something here, a shell corporation, a front? Her mind was buzzing as she told Mac to keep at it, with the promise of more pay. 

She rushed herself into a cab after her last meeting, ready to bill Logan for the expense. He’d sprung first class for her ticket, and Veronica was ready to see how the other half flew. 

With the time change she landed in Denver at 8:30 and she followed the hordes of people to find her way out. She had planned to call Logan once she was in the main terminal, but that turned out to be unnecessary; at the top of the escalator she spotted him in the crowd of family members and friends. He hadn’t spotted her yet and she took a second to study him. His face was turned down to his phone, and his face was passive. He seemed taller than when she last saw him, and definitely more muscular. A girl pushed past Veronica with a high pitched shriek, running into the arms of a young man who had been holding a sign. Logan’s gaze finally landed on Veronica, and his eyes turned into the ones she was so familiar with, a laugh waiting just behind them, a smirk on his lips. 

She walked up to him, and Logan saved her the trouble of deciding what to say by making the first quip. “Which lawyer joke do you want to hear first? I’ve got a really good one about a vacuum.”

“I think my dad has beat you on all the joking, he told me the dirtbag one when I got admitted to law school”

Logan laughed; she’d been worried this would be awkward, but he always knew how to break tension with a joke. “I’ll just have to find one you haven’t heard yet then.” He grabbed her carry-on suitcase from her. Veronica hardly hesitated before diving into the real questions.

“So why Denver? I figured you’d miss the ocean.”

“I do, but those mountains you’ll see tomorrow morning can convert pretty much anyone. The Academy brought me out here and I just decided I couldn’t leave. Well, I had to leave Colorado Springs, that place has got some issues, but Denver is great.”

“I’m assuming the bar you and Trinity were at was in Denver then?”

“Right, Star Bar. Well Trinity, she hung out there a lot. It was pretty casual between us, usually just when we both wanted to go out or something. We would meet up there sometimes.”

“Was Trinity close with any of the bartenders? Close enough for them to know anything about where she might be? What about regulars, how big is this bar?”

“She was there a lot. She didn’t have a lot of hobbies besides drinking, and this place sometimes has dancing, which she liked. People would talk to her if we went there, but honestly I would usually just meet her there and we’d go somewhere else. It was sort of just her place.”

“Well, should we go and see what we can find out tonight?”

Logan’s place was downtown, on the 19th floor of a condo building. Denver didn’t have quite the skyline she had gotten used to in New York. The buildings didn’t soar as high, but she got the feeling that she was in a large city, something she still liked after Neptune. His place was modern, sleek. Like the last place of his that she had seen, it was almost empty of personal effects. Large picture windows took up two whole walls, and she could see all the lights of the city.

“Tomorrow you’ll be able to see the mountains from here” he informed her, showing her around the place before leading her to the guest room.

It was really just his study with a murphy bed. A large cluttered desk faced the window and floor-to-ceiling bookcases took up the rest of the room. It was the most personal of his spaces she’d seen. The book titles ranged from popular science titles to the Russian masters. A well-worn copy of  _ Love in the Time of Cholera  _ sat on the desk. 

Veronica pulled herself away from examining his taste in books and put on the outfit and makeup she had brought for this plan. She pulled off the lawyer look well, but she needed a different vibe for tonight. The shirt was tight and low cut, the skirt short, the eyeshadow dark. If she wanted to get information out of drunk patrons and bartenders she had to work the party girl aesthetic.

When she came out Logan glanced at her outfit, giving her an enigmatic smile before handing her a glass of whiskey. They sipped while he ordered the Lyft to pick them up.

“Tell me everything about the last time you guys were at this bar. What was the argument about?”

“She was drunk, I was drunk. She got mad really suddenly, something about me not taking her seriously. And she started yelling at me, and I don’t think anyone knew what the problem was but the bouncer kicked me out, pretty forcefully. She followed me outside, yelled some more. I yelled too, I didn't know what was going on. She was wasted. I ordered her a car, made sure she got in it okay. Tipped the driver extra if she’d text me when she dropped Trinity off. She sent me a message about 15 minutes later saying Trinity got in okay. I tried to text Trinity to make sure, but she never replied. And then I never heard from her again.”

Veronica nodded, thinking. First on her to-do list tomorrow was to track down that Lyft driver, maybe she knew something more. 

The bar wasn’t more than 15 minutes away but Veronica was thankful she didn’t have to walk in the tall shoes she’d picked. She stepped out of the car, pulled her top a little lower, and did her best impression of a drunk person trying to walk in a straight line. She even tripped a little as they entered the bar, giggling loudly so people would take notice of her, and more importantly, notice Logan. Logan grabbed her arm as she fake tripped, saying “Careful, bobcat.” The old, joking nickname rolled off his tongue, and she went stiff at it. Veronica had been planning to drink anyway, but now she really needed it.

“What can I get you?” The bartender was a blonde with grey roots that needed touching up. She looked like the kind of woman who had listened to too many drunk people’s ramblings and it had lost its charm.

Veronica hated herself as her voice chirped out, “Cosmo!”

Logan put down his black AmEx and ordered a whiskey. As the bartender made her drink Veronica scoped out who might be likely regulars. Some were obviously there for the dancing in the back, but there were a couple of people at the bar who had the haggard look of heavy drinking. This might be their regular haunt. 

Drinks in hand they sat at a high top. She quietly asked him if anyone looked familiar. 

“The bartender, she’s always here. And that other woman,” he tilted his head slightly to indicate, “she’s been here a couple of the times I have.”

Veronica nodded and sipped more of her too-sugary drink. “How did you and Trinity meet?”

“At a club, actually. Dick had come to visit, and he took me out to some really popular rooftop place. She ordered a whiskey next to me at the bar, and I offered to buy a drink for someone with good taste.” He seemed to get embarrassed for a second. “It ended in a typical drunken night, and then we hung out sometimes after that. That was about 6 months ago. It was always a casual thing, neither of us expected anything other than a good time.”

Veronica questioned how honest he was being. Was he downplaying it for her sake or for another reason? “Hence you trying to find her, that’s what all casual friends do.”

“Hey, I told you my motives were selfish.” They were both quiet for a moment. She had a million questions, of course, but he beat her to it with one she wasn’t interested in answering. “So, being a lawyer, how is that going?”

Veronica downed the rest of her drink. “Let’s dance!” She grabbed Logan’s hand and dragged him across the bar to the dance floor in the back. 

Logan went with it, and spent a minute dancing a respectable distance away from her before Veronica put her arms around him. Reaching up on her tip-toes she whispered in his ear, “You’re supposed to act like you are trying to take advantage of me, we’ve got to put on a show.”

Logan responded by spinning her around quickly, his hands on her hips, his body against hers. Veronica could feel his breath on her neck as he leaned down and asked, “Better?”

She responded by putting her hands over his, moving her hips to the beat. She lost herself in the dancing for a few songs. His hands...those hands knew her, knew her hips, knew the small of her back. When she turned to face him and looked up into his eyes, those eyes saw her. She trusted his touch as his fingers grazed up and down her sides, as his body guided hers in dancing. She knew it was fake, this touch wasn’t real, this would all evaporate the instant they left the bar. But she liked the familiarity of his height, his touch, even his smell.

A song that Veronica didn’t care for came on and she snapped out of her reverie, remembering that this was pretend, remembering why they were here. She leaned in to whisper again. “Go take a phone call outside, come back in when I text you.”

He backed away, his hands leaving where they had been holding her against her back, and Veronica immediately found herself missing them. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, feigning surprise with an ironic smile, before holding it up to his ear and answering “Hello?”

Veronica started after him, shouting “It’s always another phone call with you!” Everyone glanced their way, including the bartender and those at the bar. Veronica figured that was enough of a scene. She stumbled over to the bar, next to the woman Logan had pointed out earlier. The bartender saw her and came over, and Veronica ordered another Cosmo with affected remorse.

The woman seated next to her spoke up. “You know hon, you’re not the first girl to shout at that boy in this bar. You could do better, sweetie.” She had a slight Southern accent that emphasized the maternal tone she had struck. Veronica turned to face her and realized she probably wasn’t as old as she looked and as her motherly pet names implied. She had a multitude of piercings along one ear, and the pock-marked skin of a smoker.

“Oh lighten up Marianne,” the bartender said as she poured Veronica’s drink out of the tumbler and pushed it across the bar. “The girl’s just looking for some fun.”

“Does he come here a lot?” Veronica was all innocence. “Is he like, a one-night stand kind of guy?”

“I don’t know about that, but he got into a nasty argument last time I saw him here, and I haven’t seen the girl since,” Marianne said.

The bartender scoffed, leaning against the bar. “You and I both know there are better reasons why Trinity would have stopped coming in.”

Veronica played her part. “She disappeared? Oh my god that’s awful!”

“You should just be careful, that boy looks like he’s got skeletons in his closet. Trinity wouldn’t just up and leave for no reason.”

Veronica made her eyes big and worried. 

“Marianne, you’re scaring the girl. Trinity was into shady business and we all know it. That boy is no worse than any other shit-for-brains man, and at least this one tips well.”

“Trinity marketed for a tech company, she was on the up and up, she was going places.” Marianne was getting defensive. 

“Because all respectable tech employees drink in the middle of the day during the week. That company was not all it said it was and you know it.” Turns out Mac wasn’t the only one who had discovered something strange going on in relation to that company.

A group of frat-guy types had walked in and the bartender went to serve them cheap beer. Veronica tried to get a little bit more out of Marianne. 

“So the guy I’m with, did he, like, love Trinity?” Veronica found it easier than it should have been to make her voice jealous. 

“I don’t know about that. He was here a lot recently, but there were other guys too. One guy would meet her here during the day, and then your fellow would come at night. She liked her boys tall and mysterious. Trinity was a lost soul, she was taking what the world gave her.” Marianne got quiet after that, taking a long drink. 

Veronica sipped her Cosmo and decided that was enough to go on for now. She had confirmed that something strange was going on with Trinity’s company, and maybe Logan could help her figure out who Trinity's daytime companion was. 

She fired off a text to Logan telling him he could come back in, and a minute later he appeared, saying “Sorry, honey” and kissing the top of her head. Marianne looked up but didn’t say anything, just picked up her drink and moved to a table across the room. Veronica decided it was time to go. “Ready to head home, baby?” She asked Logan, looking up at him from the stool. 

He smiled and helped her stand. “Sure thing, bobcat.” That name, again. She chugged the rest of her drink. 

Back at his place, Logan asked “Have one more drink with me?”

“Let me get all this gunk off my face, I’ll be right out. Just one drink! We need to get up early, I want you to take me to Trinity’s place tomorrow.” She washed away the heavy eye shadow and eyeliner and looked at herself in the mirror. Trinity was perhaps more beautiful than she was. Perfect hair, perfect body. Veronica knew she was pretty, but was she pretty enough for Logan still? She’d changed since her first year of college, 10 years did a lot to a person. Look at Logan, he’d gotten jacked. When he’d seen her at the airport did he think that she looked better too? Or had he been hoping for high school Veronica? She broke her gaze with her mirror self and peeled off the tight clothes, putting on sweatpants and a Colombia T-shirt. Like it or not, Logan was getting comfy Veronica.

She came out and he handed her a glass of whiskey, and she was grateful for a drink she actually liked. He sat on one end of the white couch and she sat on the other, resting her feet on the low glass coffee table in front of her. They sat there comfortably for a moment. Veronica wondered how you were supposed to fill 10 years of silence, if one weekend could fill in all the time. What’s a decade between old friends? What about old lovers? 

“How’s your dad doing?” he asked.

“Still keeping the cheating spouses of Neptune in check. He’s slowed down a bit on the bail jumpers though, his knees aren’t what they used to be. Thanks for asking,” she added, as an afterthought. 

“Do you ever miss Neptune?” he asked.

She took a moment to think. “Yes and no. It was home, but the citizens of Neptune weren’t always the friendliest of neighbors, and I can’t say that I had the best of times there. But yeah, I miss it a lot sometimes. What about you?”

“Yeah, same honestly. And you know how I miss the beach. But I found my passion out here.”

“How did you get into the Air Force?”

“I dropped out of Hearst not long after you transferred. I was partying too much, drinking a lot. An old professor actually reached out, I think one of my drunken escapades landed me in the local paper. He said the military changed his life, and if I wanted to change mine he’d help me get in. Plus the whole ‘getting to fly large planes thing’ was a good selling point.

“My buddy Jim got me into the teaching. He brought me in to talk to the cadets about my aerial combat experience, sort of a career day thing. And it clicked. I like helping these kids. So now when I’m not shipped out I help teach flight classes and stuff. They’re actually offering me the equivalent of a tenured professorship, if I want it.”

Veronica had taken her feet off the table and now sat sideways on the couch, facing him, enthralled with his story. “That’s an incredible opportunity Logan! Are you going to take it?”

He stared down at his drink. “I don’t know yet. They gave me a few weeks to decide. Most of us, like Jim, teach as adjuncts just a few weeks at a time. Jim even has a couple of extra side jobs for extra money. It’s a highly coveted position. But I’d have to leave active duty, and I don’t know about that yet.”

Veronica couldn’t presume to know anything about being in the active duty or how hard it would be to leave it, or why he would want to keep putting his life on the line. But he sounded so...grown-up. Debating the merits of two jobs? She remembered when he didn’t even have the ambition to go to class, let alone plan a career. “You’re lucky you found what you’re good at, not everyone finds their passion.”

“Yeah, well it beats being a surf bum, though I hear that’s going well for Dick,” he joked. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Is law your passion?”

Veronica sighed, and the whiskey loosened her tongue. “I used to think so. I’m not sure anymore. But I’ve got a shit-ton of debt, so I’m passionate about whatever will help me pay that off.”

He smiled at her. It kept taking her off-guard. He was successful now, and mature and happy. But that smile, that was the same.

She cleared her throat and stood up fast. “I’m exhausted, I should call it a night if I stand any chance of getting up tomorrow.”

But she laid awake in bed, thinking about that damn smile and how good his hands had felt on her body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys are enjoying it so far! Thanks to my beta reader mer135 for helping me immensely with the whole thing.


	3. Chapter 3

Veronica woke to her alarms and cursed. Her head already hurt and she hadn’t even sat up yet. She blamed the cosmos, no drink should have that much sugar in it. She crossed the hall to the guest bathroom and found Logan had set a bottle of ibuprofen on the counter. Gratefully, she swallowed two and took a shower, trying to shake both the hangover and whatever feelings dancing at the bar the night before had raised in her. 

When she came out of the bedroom dressed and ready for the day she saw the mountain view Logan had promised her. They were even bigger than she’d been picturing. Even though it was well into spring, gleaming snow covered the tops of the larger peaks. She was familiar with the vastness of the sea, how you would look out and not see anything for miles, the ocean blending into the sky. This was a different kind of vastness, impossibly tall formations jutting out of the earth, rising up to greet the sky instead of fading into it. It was the expanse of nature in a way she hadn’t seen before, and she could only wonder at the sun dancing off the peaks. She started to understand how Logan could call this home.

Veronica tore herself away from the view to fetch her computer and pour a cup of coffee. Logan didn’t seem to be anywhere, but there were fresh bagels on the counter and she helped herself to one, slathering it with cream cheese from his fridge. Her computer facing the window, she kept drinking in the view as she waited for her email to load. She groaned to herself; somehow there were already a couple of work emails that needed her attention. She typed out quick answers, promising things would be turned in by Monday EOD. She hated that she was the kind of person who used abbreviations for “end of day” now.

Still answering emails, Veronica heard the front door open and Logan came into the kitchen. He was sweaty, headphones around his neck. The veins in his arm muscles bulged, and the sweat had made his white t-shirt slightly see through, the contour of his pecs apparent. She tried not to stare.

“Sorry, I wanted to catch a quick workout. Glad you found the coffee.”

“No worries, I had to answer a few work emails anyway.” 

He grabbed a mug out of the cabinet and poured himself a cup. “What’s the difference between a lawyer and a herd of buffalo?”

“A lawyer charges more.”

“Damn, I’ve been cooking that one up all morning!” Logan laughed, sitting at the table with her.

“I told you I knew them all,” she laughed, before bringing them back to the situation at hand. “Do you still have the phone number from when you asked the Lyft driver to text you that Trinity was home okay?”

He pulled out his phone and reached for a scrap of paper and pen, jotting it down for her. 

“Great, I’m gonna give her a call, see if she knows anything.”

“Awesome, I’m gonna shower and then we can run by Trinity’s.”

Logan left the kitchen, and Veronica dialed, listening to enough rings for her to start planning what she was going to say on the voicemail before a woman answered.

“Yeah?” the voice said brusquely.

“Hi, my name is Veronica,” she said, laying on her sweetest voice. “I’m a private investigator and you might be able to help me.”

“I doubt it.”

Veronica wasn’t put off. “Do you remember a couple of weeks back, a girl who was incredibly drunk, a guy bought the ride for her?”

“I drive a lot of drunk people, lady.”

“He asked you to text him when you dropped the girl off okay?”

“Oh yeah, I was confused why he’d asked. She seemed drunk when he helped her into the car and I was worried she was going to be a puker. But then she was completely fine for the whole ride. She seemed like a nice gal, asked me to text her boyfriend like he’d asked, said he was the real protective type. What do you need to know?”

Veronica was confused. Trinity hadn’t been drunk? Then the screaming match with Logan, what was that if it wasn’t drunken rage? Veronica tried to recover her cool. “Well I was going to ask if she really got inside okay but if she was sober I assume that wasn’t an issue. Do you remember anything else, anything she said?”

“She was advising me on the best dispensary in town. Said Herbal Cure was the place to be. Pretty standard Colorado talk. I don’t have anything else for you, sorry.”

“No, you’ve been incredibly helpful, thank you so much for your time.”

Veronica hung up and stared at the mountains. So Trinity had been hiding something. She herself had hid her fair share of things from Logan, but the question was how innocuous Trinity’s secret was. Was it a fight that had gotten out of hand, or was it more sinister? She was considering the implications when Logan came in, asking, “Anything?”

“No, I left a message.” Veronica needed to know more first before she told Logan. She wasn’t sure what Trinity was up to.

“Alright well, ready to go? We can walk from here if you’re up for it.”

It was bright and sunny on the street, and a slight breeze kept the air a pleasant temperature for walking. Logan had put on a pair of aviator sunglasses, and Veronica found herself mad at how well he pulled them off. 

Trinity lived a little less than a mile away. “She lives in a basement apartment to save some money, she’s a bit farther from the center of town but it’s a nice area,” Logan told her as they walked. The streets between his large condo building and her apartment were mostly residential, with large established trees throwing ample shade on the cracked and settled sidewalks. Most of the houses were cute single story bungalows, but some modern rebuilds were stuck in here and there, and many houses had new second stories stacked on top of the original architecture. After living in Neptune she could recognize the signs of gentrification; this was a neighborhood in turnover.

“Does she have an alarm?” Veronica asked Logan.

He shook his head. Veronica pulled a bobby pin from her hair and worked the lock. She struggled with it, she didn’t really pick locks in her day-to-day lawyer work.

“Guess breaking and entering isn’t like riding a bicycle,” Logan said.

Veronica paused only long enough to make sure he saw her giant eye roll and a minute later the lock clicked. She was shocked as they walked in. For a basement apartment it was expensively furnished, that much was clear right off the bat. The sofas were large and leather, the rug plush. A wall of white painted built-in bookcases covered one wall, with large art books and various objets d’art placed in a carefully studied disarray. It screamed luxury. 

“Wow, not bad for a basement apartment. Did you…” Veronica trailed off.

“What, did I buy her affection with sofas? Here, have this rug, be mine? No, Veronica, she did well at her marketing job I guess, I didn’t ask.”

Veronica nodded slowly, looking around. There weren’t any photographs out; it felt even more impersonal than Logan’s place. No dishes in the sink, bed made in the bedroom. No signs of struggle, or hectic packing, or anything other than a freakishly clean apartment. 

“What are we looking for?” Logan asked, standing awkwardly in the middle of the living room still.

“You said she worked from home, did she keep any work stuff around?”

Logan gestured to the bottom shelf of the built-ins. “I never saw her work, but one time someone called to verify something and she pulled a binder from there and took the call in her room.”

Mysteriously funded luxury apartment in a basement and secret phone calls? And Logan hadn’t gotten suspicious?

“I know it sounds strange,” he said, reading her thoughts, “but I just figured she was private. I was working on a whole trust thing, you know, not doubting the person I’m with.” His face was impassive as Veronica stared at him and she tried to be equally stoic in response to the jab. So she’d had trust issues, who could blame her? It didn’t do any good to her now to dwell on past failed relationships.

She turned away and pulled a hefty 4-inch binder from the shelf. She flipped through quickly. She recognized the logo on the letterhead as the same from the Qwik website. The materials were contracts, invoices and other documents, all for companies with names like “Natural Harvest” and “Elements” and “Herbal Cure.” She noted the addresses, all Colorado ones located in Denver. Veronica looked closer at the invoices. Trinity’s company had billed the dispensaries large amounts of money, $4,000 to $15,000, but without itemized descriptions of what it was for.

She looked up at Logan. “Did Trinity tell you she marketed for dispensaries?”

Logan looked stunned. “No, I thought it was a tech company or something, that’s usually what she told people.”

“When I looked up the company before, Qwik Analytics, and it looked like a shell corporation or something, there was no real information about the company. I guess because they didn’t want to make it widely known who they were working for?”

“Pot’s legal here though.”

“Yeah but it isn’t federally legal, so dispensaries and such can’t actually keep their funds in bank accounts or it could get seized. Maybe they were flying under the radar for that reason?”

Logan just looked at her. Veronica closed the binder, slid it into her bag, and started wiping down the surfaces she’d touched.

She pulled up her camera on her phone, taking wide shots and close ups of particular pieces. She wanted to look up some of the furniture later, and maybe some of the art to see their worth. If any of the pieces were original enough, maybe she could track down the seller, or at the very least get an idea of how much Trinity was raking in. She had the sneaking suspicion dispensaries paid their contractors cash, hence the hiding of large purchases in the understated apartment. She zoomed in on each shelf of the bookcase, where books were broken up with a fabergé egg, a music box, a solid-looking abstract glass piece, a silver dish, and other oddities. She got a shot of the other rooms for good measure, before turning back to Logan. 

“Where to now?” he asked, back in the sunshine, annoyingly hot sunglasses returned to his face. 

“Is Colfax close to here? There’s a dispensary I want to visit.”

“Please tell me you’re not just looking for a toke.”

“No. this one came up a couple times in the binder, I want to see if there’s anything there. And yeah, maybe a toke,” she joked.

“It’s too far to walk, let me order a Lyft from here.” He typed into his phone and Veronica turned her face up to the sun for a second, feeling its warmth, before turning back to Logan. 

“Did you and Trinity do drugs?” she asked as they waited.

“She did, sometimes, but I can’t with the Air Force, drug tests and all. Don’t get me wrong, I miss the partying sometimes, but alcohol does the trick and works with the whole career thing.”

At Herbal Cure they had to present their ID’s in a little vestibule before they could go in, and then they got a number like they were in a deli. They sat in the waiting room for their turn, and Veronica tried to get accustomed to the distinctive smell. She had never actually been in a dispensary. She’d left California before it was legal, and New York hadn’t leaglized either. She’d tried it at parties and wasn’t sure she liked it. It made her feel slow, and she didn’t care for that. Veronica liked to have her wits about her at all times, brain always working. She’d spent so long being on edge, she couldn’t just smoke that away. 

The place was hopping, every one stocking up for their Saturday night. Finally they were called into the back room where the pot actually was.

“Hi there, what can I get you?” a young man asked them. Veronica glanced at his name tag that said “Steve” and under that “Budtender.” He looked like the kind of guy who’s job description would be a “budtender.”

“Hi Steve! Is your manager here? I hate to be the small blonde woman asking for the manager but I would like to get some advice on some help for my own dispensary.”

Steve seemed confused but obliged. “Um, sure, let me go grab him, one sec.”

She turned to where Logan was eyeing the strains of weed. “Remember the kids,” she intoned. “Can’t lose your new professorship over a high.”

“As if they aren’t hot-boxing their dorms between inspections,” he laughed.

Steve returned with the manager, who also looked exactly the type to be a dispensary manager, man-bun and all.

“How can I help you today, ma’am?”

“Hi, I’m looking for some help for my dispensary and was thinking of hiring Trinity Marshall. She said I could ask you guys for a reference?”

“Oh, we usually don’t give references for Trinity’s work, we actually have a non-disclosure clause in our contracts.” He smiled a patient customer-support smile.

Veronica tried to back-track. “Can you let me know if you’re happy with Qwik Analytics overall? I’m really looking for someone to help me break into the print marketing game.” She was fishing.

His patient smile wavered a moment “You must be mistaken, marketing isn’t a service that Qwik offers. I suggest you do your research a little more fully. Now, can Steve get you anything?”

The manager walked off and Steve resumed his spot at the counter. Veronica thanked Steve; it wasn’t his fault that something was confusing her and putting her in a bad mood.

“Mind running by another one with me?” Veronica asked Logan, back out in the sunshine. “I think it’s this way down the street, judging by the address.”

This dispensary’s ID system worked similarly, and they waited in a crowded waiting room again. These places were really doing a business. 

She pulled the same move with the budtender here, and soon was speaking with the manager, who looked like back in college he played lacrosse and took advantage of drunk sorority girls. 

Veronica used her innocent, high-pitched voice. “Hi, we work for Allegiant Analytics and I’m in the neighborhood asking dispensaries if they’re happy with their current services and if there are any gaps that we could help fill in! We know it’s hard to find marijuana industry specific contractors. May I ask who you currently work with and what they help you do? It seems like a lot of people around here work with Qwik, do you as well?” Veronica hoped that behind her Logan looked convincingly like he was working with her.

The look the manager gave her could only be described as a glare. “You may not and I don’t have to answer that.”

Veronica tried to brush it off with a laugh. “Fair enough, you don’t know me! But tell me, are there any services you currently feel aren’t being met within your company?”

“I’m gonna have to ask you to leave. We don’t need solicitors here.”

Veronica got ready to try one last time, but Logan jumped in. “I’m sorry, my associate always goes for the hard sell. We actually heard that you’ve done work with Trinity in the past and she’s started to work for our company, so we are touching base with her old clients.”

“Look, if it’ll get you out of here, I haven’t seen Trinity in weeks, and Qwik sent along someone else to take up her work. Now please leave, we don’t need anything.”

Veronica quit while she was ahead and Logan followed suit. Outside she said, “Good instincts! Kinda seems like Qwik might be in on it if she hasn’t been reported missing but she got replaced so quickly!”

Logan gave her a smirk. “Glad I could help. Does sleuthing come with lunch breaks or are you planning to work on an empty stomach?”

“The truth stops for no meal. I’m not hungry anyway. Let’s go back to your place, I need to look through that binder. Something isn’t adding up.”

Logan sighed. “Fine, but I’m making you dinner.”

She was skeptical. “You cook now? I remember a time where room service was your specialty.”

He rolled his eyes. “Do you think I just didn’t grow up after college? I’m a real adult now, I do my own laundry and everything.”

“Wow, hell has frozen over,” she laughed.

“My place is a bit of a walk from here, but are you up for it? It’s so nice out.” His face turned up to the sun like hers had earlier, and she just nodded as they turned away from the busy street and into the neighborhood behind it, side by side along the sidewalk. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for following the story! So glad you are enjoying it so far, I'm having fun posting it!


	4. Chapter 4

After investigating the dispensaries, Veronica spread out at Logan’s desk in the guest bedroom once he cleared away some of his piles of clutter. She got to work and barely registered his “I’ll be in the kitchen, yell if you need anything.” She dialed Mac first.

“You read my mind Veronica, I was just writing you an email.”

“What do you have?”

“So it’s not a shell corporation, they’ve filed taxes on real reportable income, mostly coming from investment properties. And all of those properties are local cash-based businesses. It’s subtle, but we’re talking farmer’s market stalls, flea market vendors, antique stores, that sort of thing.”

Veronica felt the feeling in the pit of her stomach that she got when something on a case clicked into place. “Maybe they are laundering money, Mac, or tax evasion at least.”

“I mean maybe, why do you think so?”

Veronica talked herself through what was probably happening: “I found some records. Dispensaries have a really hard time getting bank accounts, you know, the whole legal in the state, illegal federally thing. Anyway, I think the dispensaries are purchasing whatever services from Qwik, maybe actually marketing and stuff, maybe not. They pay in cash, because all the customers use cash. Qwik invests it into other, more legal, cash based businesses and then I bet claim extra earnings from the respectable business when really it’s marijuana that would be taxed way, way higher than antiques or whatever shit they invested in.” A picture was starting to form in her mind, and she didn’t like it. Maybe Trinity had found out something she wasn’t supposed to. Maybe there was even more to it than Veronica had deduced, and Trinity saw something she wasn’t supposed to. That would be reason enough to make someone disappear. But then why hadn’t the records in the binder been destroyed?

“Damn Veronica, what have you gotten yourself into? Why are you investigating dispensaries in Colorado?”

Veronica figured she should just tell Mac now, get it over with. After all, she had done all this research, it was the least Veronica could do. “It’s Logan, actually. I’m helping him out.”

“Logan Echolls?” Mac asked. Veronica tried to detect if there was judgement in her voice, but it mostly sounded like she was surprised.

“Yeah, he had a friend go missing and I offered to help him out for the low, low price of $200 an hour.”

“I didn’t know you were taking cases again.”

“I’m not, not really. Just this one weekend.”

Mac’s tone was again indecipherable as she asked, “How is Logan, what is he doing in Colorado?”

“He’s in the military now, if you can believe it. Air Force. Seems like he’s doing well, got his life figured out, a career and everything.” Veronica realized she sounded impressed, and she supposed she was. Maybe not necessarily about the military thing, but the whole career thing, that was new and notable. 

“Well, good for him.” There was definitely an edge of judgement in that, finally. Even after listening for it, Veronica could only overlook it. 

“Send me the list of everyone involved that you found, if you can?”

“Sure thing, boss. Let me know if you need anything else, it’s been a while since I used my investigative skills, I missed it.”

Veronica took that comment more to heart than Mac probably intended it. “Yeah, me too. Thanks Mac,” Veronica said, hanging up. 

She walked out to the kitchen, where Logan was chopping vegetables. “What are you making?” she asked. 

“Stir fry. I’m going to let you think it’s difficult so I can impress you, but in reality it’s quite easy.” He smiled easily, setting the knife down. “Find anything yet?”

She paused. She needed to tell him, but he seemed so...happy. Content. Here was this grown-up responsible Logan, who read literature and cooked and debated job offers. It was certainly appealing to her. But she came along and brought bad news back into his life. The thrill of solving part of the puzzle wore off. The cost was going to be disrupting this new life, even more than Trinity going missing had. She told herself that she needed some time to organize the papers, go though the list Mac was putting together, think it through, so she didn’t have to tell him just yet.

“Everything okay?” he asked when she took too long to answer. He crossed the kitchen to stand in front of her, looking down at her, concern crossing his face. Concern for her, she realized, and felt a little weak at the thought. 

“Just need to look through a few more documents, should have a little more information in a bit.” A few more hours wouldn’t hurt him.

“Okay,” he said, looking a little dubious, but accepting her answer. “My friend Jim is stopping by in a little bit to pick up some camping gear I borrowed, I’d love for you to meet him.”

“The guy who got you the teaching job? I’d love to,” she said, excited to meet his new friend. All of Logan’s friends in the past hadn’t exactly been her favorite, and her fall from social grace still haunted her. Was Jim another Dick Casablancas type or had Logan acquired a new taste in friends too? Veronica snuck a piece of bell pepper off of the cutting board. “Let me know when he’s here!” 

She went back to the study, opening up Mac’s email. She had divided the personnel list up by “employees,” like Trinity, and the business owners of the various “investment” properties where the money was being funneled from dispensaries to be taxed at a lower rate and/or laundered. Trinity’s binder only had evidence of the connection between Qwik Analytics and the dispensaries. Maybe she really hadn’t known about the other half of the scheme. 

Veronica glanced at the list of business owners:

Laura Brown, Centennial Used Clothing

Daniel Campbell, Lucky Antiques

James Nelson, Palmer Apiary

Donna Lyman, Broadway Pizzeria

Mac had included addresses, and the list included 34 names total. They all had to know what was going on, which made them all suspects. There was no way she’d have the time to investigate them all, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to. Drug related money schemes were outside her purview. She’d have to tell Logan to go to the police. She could only hope that they were more adept out here than they had been in Neptune, but she doubted it. As far as she was concerned all cops were useless. Maybe they could hand the tip over to a local investigative journalist instead. 

Veronica heard a knock on the front door and came out of the study as Logan answered. Jim was tall, taller than Logan even. He was just wearing a long sleeve T-shirt and jeans but he still gave off the air of being immaculately put together despite the informality.

“Hi, I’m Veronica, it's nice to meet you!” She put out her hand and his well manicured one shook it.

“Likewise. Logan talks so much about his Neptune days so it’s nice to meet someone from his past! How long are you in town for?”

“Just the weekend, quick trip.” She assumed Logan hadn’t told Jim exactly why she was here, and she looked to him to see what details he wanted to provide, which turned out to be not many.

“I hadn’t seen her in a while, invited her out. She’s never been to Colorado. We might go on a hike tomorrow.” Veronica tried to keep her face straight. A hike? She wasn’t the hiking type.

Jim looked unconvinced, but for other reasons. “Guess you guys are closer than I thought! Logan should have mentioned you more, all I ever hear are stories of Dick’s dumb shit.” He laughed and Veronica could easily join in on a joke at Dick’s expense. 

Logan smiled like a good sport, but switched the subject. “Thanks for letting me borrow your gear man, your tent was way better than mine, you were right.”

“Sure thing. Where did you and Trinity go?” Jim asked, eyes flashing to Veronica. Was he trying to gauge if Veronica knew about Trinity?

“We hit up Maroon Bells. It was freezing, but a gorgeous trip.”

“Oh I love it there, good choice. How is Trinity? I know you hadn’t heard from her in a while.” He practically stared at Veronica as he asked. He was starting to piss her off now.

“Um, no, still no word from her. Let me go grab the stuff, it’s in the guest room where Veronica is staying.” Logan stressed the last part as he left.

“So, Veronica, what is it you do?” Jim asked her. 

“I’m a lawyer,” she replied, her voice as neutral as she could make it.

“Oh wow, good for you.” Veronica resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Luckily Logan walked in, carrying the camping supplies. 

“Logan, do you think something happened to Trinity? Maybe you should call the police or something.”

“She probably is just ghosting me dude, it’s okay.”

“I don’t know man, just think about it.” Jim grabbed the stuff from Logan. “Sorry I’m gonna have to run guys, I was just in the neighborhood for a baseball game. Veronica, good to meet you. Logan, I’ll see you on campus soon?”

Logan shook his hand good-bye and closed the door behind him, turning around slowly. 

“Charming guy,” Veronica said drily. 

“He’s not usually like that, I swear. I don’t know what was all about.”

“It’s fine, he’s still better than Dick. Now, I’m dying to try some of your cooking, how can I help?”

“Why don’t you open up a bottle of wine, I’ll get started cooking.”

He turned on some music, an upbeat playlist. Veronica didn’t know anything about wine but picked a red. She set the table. Through the window she could see that the sun was getting lower in the sky over the mountains, the few clouds turning a delicious shade of pink.

“So, are you ready to tell me your theories? I know you’ve got to have them,” Logan asked.

“It’s not good news.” She had to be serious even in light of his casual attitude. 

He looked up from the skillet for a moment. “I just need to know what you know.”

Veronica nodded, ready to tell him everything. “So the marketing firm? It’s not really a marketing firm. I’m pretty sure Qwik Analytics is into something shady, tax evasion at least, potentially laundering.” She explained what Mac had found and her theory as he focused on the vegetables. “It explains her place. The rent makes it all look above board to the IRS, but I’m betting all the material purchases were made in cash, maybe a way to clean the money too, I don’t know.” She took a deep breath. “She might have become a liability, or she found out something she shouldn’t have. This whole operation seems pretty large, 16 dispensaries and 34 investment properties, that we could find. That’s a big enough operation that someone might be willing to make someone else disappear. I’m really sorry Logan.”

He nodded, still stirring. Veronica gave him a moment to process. 

“So what do we do?” he asked. 

“I don’t think I can get into this any deeper, not with only one day left. Drug related money crime is a little outside of my capabilities. I think we need to put in a tip, either the police or a local journalist. I don’t want to directly connect you to it, we can save you some trouble if I just call in.”

“But what if the cops do bring me in? That’s part of what we were trying to avoid here, right?”

“If we give it to a journalist they have a chance of cracking it open without even involving you. And if the cops get into it, we could argue that the evidence against you was staged.”

“Wait, what?”

“Yeah, the woman who was the Lyft driver, she said that Trinity was perfectly sober when you put her in the car. She was pretending to be drunk for some reason. I don’t know how that fits into anything, but you’re off the hook if that’s the only evidence they have against you.” Veronica paused. The good news was that there was no case against him, but she knew that Logan would still be hurting. “I really am sorry, Logan.”

Logan turned off the burner, pouring vegetables into a serving bowl, and rice into another. “Maybe she just thought a staged drunken fight was the best way to break up with me or something.”

Veronica didn’t reply. That made some sense, but if it was true it was a dick move on Trinity’s part. Missing or not, Veronica hated Trinity a bit for doing that to Logan.

“Anyway,” he said, in a slightly forced voice, “Let’s try this. Even you will have to give me a compliment.”

She made an exaggerated show of taking a bite and tasting it, but could honestly say, “It’s really good Logan! Much better than room service.” 

He feigned a bow. The mood lightened, and they ate and chatted about the old days. The times before all of this, before they were them, before Lily died. The sun was setting over the mountains and they exchanged memories, laughing at how different they were back then. 

“Do you remember the homecoming night with all the champagne? Didn’t Lily kiss you that night?” he asked.

“That was an insane night! I remember getting in trouble when we finally got home,” she laughed. 

He laughed too, lifting the wine bottle and finding it empty. “Another bottle?” he asked, already standing. Veronica already felt the wine getting to her but she allowed him to pour her another glass. She left it and started siding the dishes.

“Leave them in the sink” he said. “I’ll get them tomorrow.” They moved to the living room and Veronica caved and brought the wine with her. The playlist had switched from when they were cooking and it was quieter now. More memories flowed, and they laughed and joked like there wasn’t a decade’s worth of memories they didn’t share with each other between them. 

It was dark in the apartment now, and he flicked on the lamp next to him. “Thanks for coming to help Veronica. I know that you took a chance to be here. You really are a good friend, to show up here after 10 years to try to help me out with what ended up being a really complicated case.”

She realized that after all this time, she’d be willing to go to great lengths for him. She had known from the instant she heard his voice that she would see him again. But brushing off his thanks, she said “You’d do the same for me.”

Logan stared down into his wine glass. “You always did have more faith in me than other people did.”

Veronica didn’t know if that was true or not anymore, but there had certainly been a time where she had seen something in him that others couldn’t. She wondered what his relationship had really been like with Trinity.

"Did you love Trinity?" Veronica asked, emboldened by the wine but losing tact because of it.

He was direct with her. "Maybe I was going through the motions, but no. I suppose I was just wasting time." His eyes met hers with an intensity, and she had to look somewhere else, feigning a need to turn her whole body away to pick up her wine glass.

Until what? Veronica was dying to ask, but held her tongue. This could get messy if she asked more. Was he wasting time for her? It would be awkward if she thought so and he wasn’t referring to her. And if he was, well…Veronica couldn't get involved right now. She had her job, and even if she wasn't sure she loved it she was committed to giving it more of a shot than she had. Besides, the two of them hadn't ever worked before. Who's to say that they would now? She felt silly even entertaining the idea.

The silence stretched on as Veronica worked through the situation in her mind, and then pretty soon it had been too long and she realized she had missed her chance to say anything. They kept drinking the wine in the loaded silence, and finally Logan broke it. 

"So, what time is your flight tomorrow?" His voice sounded funny, like maybe he was upset she hadn't said anything, maybe embarrassed at putting whatever that was out there. She’d really messed this conversation up. She vowed never to drink wine again. 

"4:25, that gets me back to New York around 10 for a blissful few hours of sleep before work."

He nodded. "Great, we can leave at 2, make sure you get there in plenty of time. What do you want to do tomorrow?" Gradually, he was sounding normal again, and Veronica chalked all the awkwardness up to being amplified by her anxiety. Just a normal conversation, as normal as it could be between two people with the past they shared. 

“Well, we have to put in the tip on Trinity.” Her name felt loaded in Veronica's mouth after her question of his affection, like she shouldn't be talking about Trinity now. 

Logan breezed over it. "Well, we can do that whenever, but if you're up for it I really think we should do that hike." He laughed as Veronica's face betrayed what she hadn't let it before in front of Jim. "I know it doesn't seem like your thing, but trust me, when you get up there, you can see forever. You're gonna love feeling that tall."

“I’m not sure I have the right shoes for a hike, or if I’ve ever owned the right shoes for a hike,” she laughed, desperately trying to get out of this.

“The shoes you wore walking today will be fine, it’s not a hard hike. Think you can be ready to go around 8?”

Veronica resigned herself to her fate. “Fine, let’s do it.”

“Alright, I’m going to get some sleep then. You’re welcome to stay up if you want.” He stood and smiled down at her on the couch. “Good night, Veronica.”

She murmured good night but sat on the couch for a moment. Tomorrow she’d be leaving, leaving Logan. She wasn’t sure how she was feeling, but she supposed she knew she was going to remember this weekend. All of this investigating, doing what she had been so good at in the past, it felt more gratifying than her work at the law firm ever had. But what part of it was the job and what part of it was being with Logan? She sipped the last bit of wine from the glass, wanting to shake the thought, already breaking her vow to avoid wine forever.

The alarm blared early again and Veronica put herself together in her most outdoorsy clothes, which basically consisted of her leggings and a T-shirt she borrowed from Logan. 

“We’re gonna hike the Flatirons, it’s a pretty basic hike, but you can’t beat the view, and it’s pretty close. Why don’t you bring your bag with you, in case we don’t have time to run back to the house before you need to get to the airport?”

They were quiet on the drive, waiting for the coffee to kick in, enjoying the fresh air from the rolled down windows. The sky was clear like it had been the day before, not a cloud in sight. 

They were driving straight at the mountains, the peaks getting bigger and bigger. They drove up a final hill before dropping down into Boulder, the city nestled at the base of the mountains. Huge rock faces jutted out of the side of them, the so called “flatirons.” Logan parked at the base, pulled a pack out of his trunk, and they started off.

The first part of the hike was easy, the trail winding through a large meadow. There were orange and purple wildflowers growing sporadically amongst the grass. The path got steeper and soon they were walking in the pine trees. The switchbacks criss-crossed the mountain, and gaps in the trees let her see the view as they went along. Logan stopped every so often without her needing to ask, handing her a water bottle.

She wasn’t sure how far or for how long they had been hiking. The air had a slight chill to it as they got higher up, but the constant sun was warm on her skin. She kept following along behind Logan, studying his back, the muscles above the pack taut. Birds called to each other from the branches and Logan laughed at her when she exclaimed as a lizard ran across the trail. There were more people out hiking than she would have expected, some people already coming down from the top. Veronica kept holding them up to pet all the dogs that ran up to her. 

They got to a large collection of boulders that they had to climb up and Logan went first, offering his hand out to Veronica to help her. She took it and he gripped it tight, lifting her, his other hand brushing her hip to steady her at the top. His fingers lingered for a moment longer than they needed to, eyes behind his sunglasses inscrutable. He murmured “Almost there,” and turned away from her. Veronica felt unsteady all over again.

They finally reached the top. Out of breath, Veronica turned to take in the view. It certainly had been worth the hike, and Logan had been right, she loved feeling like she was on top of the world. She’d been to the top of some of the highest buildings in New York, but this was so different. To the west the mountains extended further and further back, lush with pine trees, the taller ones in the distance capped with large swaths of snow. To the east, she could see for miles and miles across the flat earth. She could see Denver, and its downtown skyscrapers were miniature against the horizon. Veronica drank it in, sitting on a high rock. Her mind felt free, between the fresh air and the view she felt a beautiful kind of clarity. Logan unzipped his pack and handed her a granola bar which she accepted gratefully. Pulling out her phone she tried to snap a picture of the view, but it didn’t come close to doing it justice. She could feel Logan’s eyes on her face, watching her watch the world. 

Finally she spoke. “Logan, it’s beautiful. You were right.”

He had pulled off the sunglasses and she looked into his eyes. If she looked too long, what would she see? The new maturity and confidence in his eyes was emphasized by the very small lines starting to form around them. But beneath it, beneath the new location and new job and new life, those eyes had seen Neptune and still reflected it. She looked at them and didn’t see Denver, she saw home, and all the intricacies it came with. 

He just smiled at her, not guessing her train of thought. “I’m glad you like it.” They silently sipped from their water bottles and Veronica felt her heart rate finally slow. She could have stayed there forever, but eventually Logan stood, asking “Ready?”

She stood too. “Let’s do it.” They picked their way down the mountain, passing even more people now hiking up. At the same rock he had helped her up, Logan went down first. Veronica sat down on the rock, slid forward, and let him grab her waist and slide her off the rock. His touch now was more intimate than when they had gone dancing. That was under the guise of pretending to be together for the investigation. But this, him touching her now, that was just between them, no pretenses. 

He lingered again and took even longer before pulling away and hiking down. Veronica felt breathless. It’s the altitude, she told herself. There’s less air, you’re breathless from the altitude. But his face had been so close to hers.

The rest of the hike was easy, back through the meadow to his car. She looked up at the rocky features. She’d been up at the top somewhere, and felt a surge of pride at the accomplishment.

The clock in the car read 12:36, and they settled on just taking her straight to the airport. She pulled out her phone to call in the tip. They’d decided together that she should give the story to  _ The Denver Post _ . She reached the tip line voicemail. “Hello, I’d like to report on financial discrepancies in a local-based business, Qwik Analytics.” she paused to spell out the name for them, “They are potentially illegally moving cash and may have participated in the disappearance of employee Trinity Marshall.” Veronica hung up. That took care of that. She hadn’t completed the case to her usual standard of excellence, and she knew Logan had to be disappointed in her, frustrated that she hadn’t found more. But she couldn’t dwell now; it was back to the real world, her real life.

“Depending on what the journalists do, the police might come to ask you questions about Trinity. Don’t answer anything without a lawyer present. I know you are innocent, but no matter how innocent you are they will twist your words, trust me.”  
“Even if they are just asking me some informal questions?”

“Honestly yes, if you are being detained in any way ask for your lawyer, invoke your fifth amendment right and wait for them to come.”

Logan nodded, his eyes faithfully on the road through the whole conversation. “Okay,” he said, seriously. “Thank you Veronica.” His eyes flashed to hers for a second. “I really appreciate you being here.”

“You’re welcome, Logan.” The air felt a bit too tense so she joked, “You’re going to get a discount on your invoice later since I didn’t actually solve the case.”

He laughed, implicitly agreeing to lighten the mood. “I told you you could charge me whatever, but I appreciate that.”

They drew closer to the airport. Veronica looked at the large horse sculpture that towered between the two directions of traffic. As it loomed over her, she stared into its red eyes. 

“It’s bad luck, you know.” Logan said. “It's the devil horse, you aren’t supposed to look at it before you fly out of here.”

Veronica wasn’t worried, but she was starting to wish she didn’t have to go. The mountains loomed in the side mirror when she looked at it. 

“Next time we can go on a longer hike, with less people on it. I know some other great spots, further back in the mountains.”

“Next time?”

“Yeah, I’m hoping you’ll come again. I don’t want to go another 10 years without seeing you. I know you’re busy kicking ass as a lawyer though, so maybe I come see you in New York or something,”

“I’d like that,” she said. It was true. She didn’t want to go another decade without seeing him, either. Even though they had settled into a rhythm like the 10 years before wasn’t as long as it had been, she didn’t want to have to play catch-up in his life again. 

He pulled up to Departures and got out of the car to help her with her bag. He pulled up the handle and twirled the bag to face her. “Why don’t snakes bite attorneys?”

“Professional courtesy.”

He laughed, and stood in front of her, hands in pockets almost awkwardly. “Thanks again. Have a safe flight.”

“Take care, Logan.” She reached for a hug and he bent as she raised herself up on her toes. His arms wrapped around her, strong and comforting. She closed her eyes for a moment, and took in his smell, his aftershave underneath the pine and sweat from the hike. She pulled away, grabbed her bag and walked towards the doors, telling herself not to look back.

She couldn’t help herself though, and once she was inside looked through the window back at him. He was leaning against his car, staring passively in the direction she had walked. His face was hard, the smile he had sent her off with gone from his face. Finally a traffic attendant’s shrill whistle made him get back into his car, and Veronica watched it disappear before turning to security. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for following along, your comments and kudos are getting me through my crazy start of the semester!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for being patient with me updating this! This has been the semester from hell, but you all are wonderful bits of joy!

Veronica had trouble adjusting to being back at work. Jenny had bothered her as soon as she got in the office Monday, trying to pry details out of Veronica. Veronica easily deflected her inquisitions and spent a few days catching up on briefs, memos, and contracts. 

Her routine bored her now. She supposed it had always been somewhat boring, but it really hit her just how little she cared for her work once she came back from a break from it. The hours at the office passed slowly. Veronica’s mind returned to Trinity and her case almost habitually. Every extended dull minute her mind sought out the problem she hadn’t been able to solve. Why had Trinity staged the fight, why was the binder left behind at her place? She couldn’t make the pieces fit, but she found herself trying over and over again rather than listen to the inane chatter in the meetings she was obliged to attend. 

She waited for news from Logan, wanting to know if someone had followed up on her tip, if Trinity had been located. She had bookmarked Denver news sites, checking every morning to see if there was a story on the dispensaries, or any information at all. The following week there was finally a hit.  _ The Denver Post _ had a headline on their page: 

**Local Dispensaries And Businesses Involved in Money Laundering Scheme**

She texted Logan the link. That afternoon he finally replied. 

_ Police are investigating Trinity. Got brought in for questioning. _

Veronica replied.  _ Are you a suspect? _

_ I don’t think so. They asked about the fight, I told them what my lawyer thought appropriate to share. But really they asked about her job, fishing for info on that, following up on the article I guess. _

Well that was a relief. She was glad the police hadn’t fallen for the simple answer of the angry boyfriend and were looking into the businesses. She didn’t reply, but a few minutes later Logan sent another text.  _ Hope New York is good. _

She smiled to herself.  _ No one out here has as many bad lawyer jokes as you. _

Another week went by with no more news from Logan. Trinity’s case came to Veronica’s mind less and less now. She spoke up more in meetings again, to the displeasure of all the other junior associates who had become more notable in Veronica’s mental absence. Another week after that and her routine felt normal again. She was fully prepared to write off the Colorado escapade as a one-time lapse in judgement. You couldn’t change your whole life plan in just a weekend, she reasoned with herself. It was never going to work that way.

She was actually trying hard on a brief on the Thursday morning he called. It was a prospectus on a big client, and the partner had put several junior associates to the task, “just in case.” Veronica’s competitive side had reared its head, and she wanted hers to be the best.

An unfamiliar number popped up on the screen as her phone silently rang. She recognized the Colorado area code now, and answered.

“You have a call from Denver County Jail. Hold please.”

Fuck. Looks like Logan had become a suspect after all.

“Hey, Veronica, when attorneys die, why do they bury them 600 feet underground?”

“Logan, what happened? I thought they weren’t suspecting you!”

“Because deep down they’re actually nice people. Looks like you don’t know all the lawyer jokes in the world Ms. Mars.”

“I know the joke, Logan, I was just a little distracted by where you’re calling from.”

He laughed, but it sounded hollow, dark. “Likely story, you’re just mad I found a joke you didn’t know.”

She just stayed silent, waiting him out. He sighed. “She’s dead Veronica. Trinity...they found her body by Cherry Creek in the city last night.”

“Oh god Logan, that’s awful, I’m so sorry.” She hesitated only a moment before asking, “Why are they suspecting you?”

“She called 911 right before, said she was running from her boyfriend who was trying to kill her. And then the police found her body not far from my place. Came knocking at my door at 3 in the morning and arrested me.”

Veronica’s mind raced. Someone from Qwik trying to frame Logan? Someone else she hadn’t even considered? She remembered something the woman from the bar had said, that there were other men. Trinity might have had multiple boyfriends. 

“Are you going to make bail?”

“My lawyer is working on that right now, hopefully I’ll be out by this evening. Um,” he hesitated for a long enough time that Veronica was getting ready to jump in. “I know it’s a lot to ask, but can you come back out? There’s no one I trust more to help me get out of this mess.”

She didn’t even think about it. Work be damned. Logan needed her, and she wasn’t strong enough to resist that. “Yes, I’ll be out there as soon as I can.”

“I’ll call you when I’m out. They’re telling me to wrap it up, some teenage miscreant needs to make his one call.”

“I remember your teenage miscreant days well. Try not to piss all the cops off too much.”

She looked up flights. If she left work right now she could get home, pack, and be on a plane that would get her to Denver at 4. She booked the ticket, powered down her computer, and picked up her purse. She’d send an email to her boss later. Now was about getting to Logan. 

Jenny called from her cubicle as Veronica walked by. “Veronica, did you finish that memo I needed…” she trailed off, eyeing Veronica’s bag pointedly. 

“Yeah, I’ll send it to you later.”

“Are you leaving? In the middle of the day?” Jenny whispered, as if it was a giant secret. 

“Yes.” Veronica hid her smile as Jenny just gaped at her. As she left the office building Veronica knew that Jenny had probably already told everyone. Maybe she’d even embellish the story, make Veronica extra unlikeable. Veronica found she didn’t care at all.

At home she had about an hour before she needed to leave for the airport. She threw in the slutty outfit from before, in case she needed to run that ruse again. She packed her nicest courtroom outfit, in case they found themselves in a situation that called for her to actually work as a lawyer for him. What the hell, she told herself, as she tossed in the nice lacy underwear and matching bra. She was only human. And she grabbed Logan’s shirt she had worn on the hike and back to New York. It had smelled like him, and she had resisted the urge to keep wearing it when she came home, making herself wash it and leave it on the dresser. 

On the plane she looked out the window occasionally and all she could see were clouds, obscuring her view. She listened to music, trying to calm her mind. Even though she didn’t have all the facts yet, her brain wouldn’t stop speculating anyway. There was no Logan to pick her up this time, at the top of the escalator. She looked with jealousy at the family and friends waiting for their loved ones. She had a message waiting from him when she landed. He was in the process of getting out still, but the judge had approved his bail and he’d meet her at his place.

The timing worked out well. He texted her that he was home just as the Lyft was picking her up. The rush hour traffic was already insane and she fidgeted in the car, anxious to get to him, knowing what was going through his mind. He hadn’t loved Trinity, but she knew that didn’t matter. So many people around Logan had gotten hurt, and she knew he blamed himself, even when it made no sense to do so. 

He opened the door holding a very full glass of whiskey. His eyes lit up, only just, when he saw her, and there were dark circles under them. She hugged him, still in the doorway. They stood there for a while, Veronica waiting for him to pull away, ready to hold him for as long as he needed. Veronica thought of when his mom had died, and how she’d held him then, unsure what to do with the broken boy in front of her. And she thought of how he had held her when she thought her dad was gone. They’d always helped each other through these harrowing moments of loss. They always would, she resolved.

He finally pulled away, taking a gulp of whiskey. “I ordered Chinese food, it should be here soon.”

Veronica put her stuff away in the guest room, desk already cluttered again since her last visit. She poured a much smaller glass of whiskey for herself and sat down on the couch with him, letting the silence stretch on. When the knock on the door came she answered and brought the bags of food into the living room, handing Logan the carton of General Tso’s she knew he loved, saving the carton of sesame tofu for herself. He’d remembered her favorite.

When they finished she cleared the coffee table, saving the leftovers, wiping the table down. She took a moment from the kitchen to stare at the mountains in the soft light. The sun was already behind them, and it made the peaks look haunted and dark, even as the sun's rays still shone from behind and lit the cloudless sky. She watched the people walking and biking on the street below. That was the thing about grief. The world never waited for you while you tried to catch your breath.

Logan was refilling his glass when she rejoined him, bringing him a glass of water from the kitchen and setting it in front of him. 

“Thank you,” he said, silence finally broken. He took a sip, preparing himself. “They let me listen to the 911 call. Suppose they were trying to get a reaction out of me, as if that would make me confess.” Another sip of whiskey. “She was running, and she was out of breath and said ‘My boyfriend is trying to kill me.’ And the operator is asking her where she is but all you can hear is her scream and her phone go dead.”

Veronica had seen her fair share of grisly things, but hearing someone’s murder was heart-rending in a way that she couldn’t imagine. Unable to find adequate words, she settled with “That’s horrible Logan, I’m so sorry,” with all the sincerity she could put into her voice.

“She didn’t mean me. We were never official like that. Someone else she knew, someone did this to her.”

Veronica was already determined to solve the case, but she felt her resolve grow fiery. She spoke with force, deadly calm, as she said, “We’re gonna find out who did this Logan, I promise. However long it takes, I’m here.”

He just nodded and drank more. Veronica let him, grabbing him another glass of water at least. Eventually, staring down at his hands he asked her, “Why does everyone around me get hurt?”

She knew his thoughts would take him there. She moved closer to him on the couch. “None of them getting hurt was your fault. Lily and your mom, they weren’t your fault.” She knew he knew that, but she knew as well as anyone how in a vulnerable moment the years of work can be undone, a nicely healed scar ripped open with pain as fresh and new as it had been in the years before. She moved closer again and took one of his hands in both of hers, while his other still clutched the glass of whiskey. She willed comfort through her touch, hoping that through her hand alone he would have her sympathy.

She didn’t know what time it was, but the room had grown dark a while ago, neither of them moving to flick on a lamp. “Let’s get some sleep,” she suggested, and rose, hand still holding his, helping him up. He squeezed her hand in front of the guest bedroom, bending down and kissing the top of her head. 

“Goodnight, Veronica,” he said, before slowly going down the hall to his room, door clicking closed.

Veronica slept in the next morning but was still up before he was. She made a pot of coffee, searching cabinets for the grounds, closing them softly so she didn’t disturb Logan’s rest. She set up her laptop at the kitchen table just as she had the last time she was there, mountain view a glance away. Typing quickly, she fired off an email to her boss. She’d stretched the truth a bit, said it was a family emergency and she’d be using her vacation time until she could make it back. Frankly, she didn’t feel guilty at all about misleading them. In any case, Logan didn’t really have any family left, so wasn’t she sort of filling that role right now?

She looked up Logan’s lawyer’s info and emailed him too, asking for a meeting. She wanted to get filled in on the case the police were mounting against Logan. Maybe the lawyer had some evidence that Veronica could do something with.

She poured another cup of coffee. She was starting to notice little things around his apartment. It wasn’t as impersonal as it had appeared when she first got there. When she had been rummaging through the cabinets looking for coffee she’d found his secret stash of chocolate bars. There were houseplants around that as Veronica studied them found that they were real and well cared for. He had a dish on the counter with spare change in it, a calendar on his wall that still read April, a grocery list on the fridge. 

As she was sending off the memo she had promised Jenny, Logan walked in, squinting in the bright light.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

“Not the worst but not the best.” He poured himself a cup of coffee and leaned against the counter. “So, what’s on tap for today? I’m assuming you have some sort of plan to get me out of this.”

“I emailed your lawyer, so hopefully we’ll get a meeting with him today. And then depending on what we get out of that, we follow up or we try to find out who this boyfriend could be.”

“Well, sounds like you’ve got a great plan.,” he said. “I’m going to go puke up this coffee and all of my regrets from last night and then we’ll be good to go.”

She grinned and he chuckled, setting his coffee mug down on the counter. “Thanks for being here, Veronica. I hope you aren’t in too much trouble at work.”

“Honestly I’m pretty sure the girl next to me will have knocked down the wall and made herself a double cubicle by now. Do you have to work at all anytime soon?”

“Nah, graduation is in a few weeks. I’m teaching part of a summer course though. And then I’m set to ship out for 6 months starting in August.”

“Well, what do you usually do during the day? I don’t want to get in the way of your routine.”

“You’re better than the routine. Today was supposed to be ab day at the gym but that’s not going to happen. I was actually looking forward to some investigating time with you, if I can tag along.”

“Sure thing, partner,” she said with an accent, trying to distract herself from the flutter she’d felt when he said he wanted to spend time with her. Checking her computer she added, “Your lawyer emailed, we’ve got a meeting with him at 1.”

The law offices of Larsen, Larsen & Conner were located downtown in one of the limited number of skyscrapers the city boasted. The waiting room was all dark wood and gold accented furniture. Clearly Logan didn’t cut corners when it came to attorneys.

The office of Mr. Larsen himself was a corner one, with huge windows overlooking the city and a massive mahogany desk commanding the space.

“Mr. Larsen, nice to meet you. Veronica Mars, thanks for agreeing to meet with me on short notice.”

“Please, call me Steve.” He had a low voice, and she knew jurors must just love hearing him speak in the courtroom. “I hear from Logan you’re a lawyer too?”

“Corporate, in New York. Truman-Mann.”

“Impressive, that’s a great firm. I went to law school with Lindsey Holland, she still over there?”

Veronica was always surprised when people had heard of her firm, although she knew it had a good reputation. But she’d seen it from the inside, and it was not nearly as exciting as everyone thought it was. “Yeah, she’s set to make partner in the fall actually.”

“Great, good for her. What can I do for you Ms. Mars?”

“I’d like an overview of the evidence the DA has against Logan.”

“It’s flimsy. If it does go to trial we’ve got all but a sure shot at acquittal. Most of the case rests on the 911 call. I have a copy, if you’d like to give it a listen…”

Veronica glanced at Logan. He stood up. “I’m gonna grab a glass of water, you go ahead.” 

He left the office, the door softly closing behind him. “I think hearing it once was enough for him,” she said, then listened to the recording.

Trinity’s voice wasn’t what Veronica had imagined. It was higher pitched, as far as she could tell from the panicked out-of-breath tone on the call. It was as hard to hear as Logan described. “My boyfriend is chasing me! He’s trying to kill me!” The 911 operator asked for her location. “The Cherry Creek path, near the Country Club! Please, he’s going to kill me! I can’t keep running!” The 911 operator told her help was on the way. There was a man’s voice yelling something unintelligible, a scream from Trinity, and the phone clattering on the pavement before the call ended. 

“The phone was found on the scene? What about the murder weapon?”

“Phone was left there.” Mr. Larsen pulled out a picture. “She was hit over the head with this.” It was an abstract looking glass art piece. Veronica recognized it. She pulled out her phone, scrolling through the pictures to get to the ones she had taken from Trinity’s apartment. It had been on the bookcase. 

“It’s from Trinity’s place,” she told him, flashing him the picture. “Do the cops know that?”

“No, and I don’t want to know how you know that either.”

“So all they have on him is a call where Trinity says her unnamed boyfriend is trying to murder her?”

“And the fight outside the bar. And now they have one more thing. Someone came forward today, a witness.”

Logan came back into the room. “Good timing Mr. Echolls. I was just telling Ms. Mars here that the police have a witness claiming to have seen you outside your apartment 20 minutes before the murder.”

“That’s a lie, I was home the entire time! Can’t my building’s security footage prove that?”

“It appears that your building doesn’t have the security it claims to. The cameras in the lobby have been down for weeks and there aren’t any in the parking garage, so hypothetically you could have left that way. Now, I don’t have the name of the witness or a video but I do have a transcript of the statement.”

Veronica read through it quickly. It was vague, but specified that Logan had been walking in the direction of the country club approximately 20 minutes or so before the 911 call was placed. “Fingerprints in Trinity’s place?”

“None of Logan’s, but no one else’s either.”

None of this was good news, but it wasn’t damning evidence. She was confident that a capable lawyer, which Mr. Larsen certainly seemed, could get him out of this, but she wasn’t going to let it come to that.

She thanked Mr. Larsen for his time, and they stood to leave. “I’ll be in touch if I hear anything else,” he told them.

Trinity had definitely known this person well if the murder weapon was from her house. Veronica told Logan to drive to the bar. They needed to figure out who this other boyfriend was.

“Did Trinity ever talk about the other guys she was seeing?”

“We talked once or twice about not being exclusive. But no, it’s not like all of our partners got together for a BBQ.” His voice had an edge to it, and his eyes were unwavering from the road. 

Veronica hated to do it, but she had to push it a bit further. “Can you think of anyone out here who would have it out for you, who would want to frame you for something?”

“You know me, I make friends wherever I go.”

“Logan, seriously.”

“Just give me a second to think, Veronica!” His voice was loud in the confined space.

“I know it’s hard Logan. I just want to help solve this quickly.”

He sighed. “I know, I’m sorry. But honestly it’s not like Neptune. I don’t really have anyone I’ve pissed off here. I really will try to think, but aside from cutting people off in traffic people don’t hate me here.”

The same bartender from their last visit was behind the bar. It was early afternoon on a Friday and there were only two other patrons there. She looked up from the glasses she was stacking behind the bar. “What can I get you?”

Veronica ordered a drink just so she’d have an excuse to tip her big.

“Do you happen to know Trinity Marshall?” Veronica asked. The time for tact was gone. They were looking for quick answers, and it wasn’t like word was going to be getting back to Trinity about their inquiries. 

“Yeah, she used to come in a lot, why?”

“Unfortunately she was killed two nights ago and I’m helping to look into some leads.”

The bartender's face had stayed carefully placid. “You a cop? Cops aren’t welcome here.”

“No, no, a private investigator.”

“What do you need to know?”

“Do you know anything about her boyfriend?”

“You mean other than this one?” She stared at Logan. 

“Yes, please. Logan here is the one I’m trying to help, we think the other boyfriend is the one who hurt her.”

The bartender narrowed her eyes at Logan. “You the one she took the fall for?”

“What?” Logan asked, looking confused.

“You mean the cocaine bust?” Veronica asked. “She fell on that for her boyfriend?”

“Trinity had shitty taste in men.” The bartender gave Logan another pointed look.

“I’m gonna wait in the car,” Logan murmured. 

After he left, the bartender said, “I remember you from a few weeks ago. Back then I think I told you the guy you’re with wasn’t so bad. But now that Trinity’s dead...you’re sure he’s not the one that hurt her?”

Veronica was touched; she sounded concerned now that Logan was gone. “Very sure. This other guy, what can you tell me about him?”

“I’m good with faces, not with names, and she called him ‘babe’ most of the time anyway. Tall guy, brown hair, tan like he works outside. Had marks on his arms all the time, like bug bites or burns or something.”

“Anything else that can help me track him down?”

The bartender thought, glancing around. Her face lit up when she looked at the sports recaps that were playing on the TV mounted in the corner. “He had season tickets to the Rockies. They were here before games a lot.”

“Thank you, that’s helpful.” She slid her business card across the bar. “Please, if you remember anything else, let me know.” She left a $20 bill as well for the drink she hadn’t touched. 

Logan was in the car down the street. She could hear the music from several cars away, but he turned it down when she opened the door. 

“Well?” he asked.

“He had season tickets to the Rockies, which should narrow it down.”

“Can you track that?”

“I can’t, but Mac can.” She dialed her number as Logan drove back to his place. “Hey,” she said when Mac answered. “How easy would it be to hack a major sports team?”

“Bunch of jocks? No problem.”

“Great, can you get me a list of the Colorado Rockies season ticket holders?”

“Sure, should be able to get it to you tomorrow morning.”

“Why some lucky girl hasn’t swept you off your feet yet I’ll never know. You’re the best!”

“I know. Are you back in Colorado? You know I’m invested in this case like you!”

“There have been more developments.” Veronica’s eyes flashed towards Logan. “I’ll fill you in later.”

“You better, updates are now part of my contract terms.”

She laughed. “Thank you, Mac.” She hung up.

“So what’s next?” Logan asked. 

“Well, I’m pretty sure the killer will be on that list and that’s kind of the best lead we have, so we’re actually good for now.”

“Wow, investigating isn’t the fast-paced life I’d imagined.”

She put on her noir detective voice. “You gotta have time to spend with the broads, see.”

He laughed. “In that case, can I take you out to dinner tonight?”

“You know, I think we could use a night out.” A night together, she thought. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We finally reached the smut chapter! There are breaks before and after it in case you want to keep up with the story but aren't interested in the sex :)

The restaurant Logan took Veronica to was near where the lawyer’s office had been, amongst the tall buildings of downtown. It was the perfect mix of casual and classy, with vines and antique books making up the décor, and lots of light pouring in from large garage doors that opened to the patio. 

“This is my favorite place,” Logan said, and Veronica was excited he was sharing it with her. “Their Brussel sprouts are the best thing I’ve ever eaten.”

They ordered drinks with dinner, and talked about anything and everything other than the case. He told her stories of being on active duty, and the shenanigans that he and the other cadets got up to. The Air Force couldn’t get rid of all the subversion of authority he’d flaunted in his youth. Veronica in turn regaled him with stories from law school, and the few wild nights she’d had in New York. 

It was easier than the last dinner they’d shared. She’d been feeling out the new Logan then, wondering if anything could last over the decade they hadn’t talked. But now she knew that there was. Now she felt that no matter how much time passed, a decade, 15 years, 20 years, she could always fall back in step with him. Now she knew that he was meant to be in her life, that it wouldn’t ever feel right unless they could do this, just chat and laugh and exist together.

“Dessert?” he asked outside the restaurant. They walked along the streets, a slight chill in the air since the sun had gone down. They walked to an ornate building with “Union Station” in large red neon lettering on it. Inside she realized it was an old train station, converted to contain a restaurant, bar, little stores here and there. An ice cream shop was tucked to one side. They each got a cone, and back outside Logan grabbed her hand, fingers entwining though hers. Veronica felt a shift in the pit of her stomach and was glad she had the ice cream to cool her down. When she peeked up at his face and saw his tongue sneak out to lick a drop of melted ice cream on the cone the feeling in her stomach moved lower. 

He held her hand all the way to the car, and Veronica found herself missing it as he had to pull away, opening the door for her. The hand-holding was innocent, and maybe he had meant it as a friendly gesture, she thought, ready to talk herself back to rationality at the same time her mind was imagining those hands touching her elsewhere.

It felt like it took forever to get back to his building, and with every red light Veronica felt herself tense up, annoyed. She told herself to calm down, she had no right to expect anything to happen between them. The radio was playing softly in his car, filling up just enough space while leaving room for her mind to wander with desire. She stared straight ahead as they waited for the elevator in the parking garage, afraid that her hopes would be written on her face. What if he didn’t want what she wanted?

He pressed the button for the 19th floor, and when the doors finally closed, she snuck a glance at him. He was already looking at her, smiling eyes above his typical smirk. “Logan,” she said, or maybe pleaded. He grabbed her hand, brought her towards him, arms wrapping around her back, ducking his head to kiss her. It was everything she had remembered and more. She brought her arms up, and he deepened the kiss. His mouth tasted sweet from the ice cream as their lips moved together. He backed her up to the wall, body flush against hers and yet she held on tighter, as if she could bring him closer. The doors opened on his floor and she made to pull away, but he kept the kiss going, picking her up, and she wrapped her legs around his hips. She giggled as he carried her down the hall, hoping that none of his neighbors were looking to take out their trash right now. 

***

Logan set her down outside his door and pulled his arms away only long enough to unlock it and let them inside, long enough for Veronica to kick off her shoes and try to catch her breath before he swept her back up, carried into his bedroom. When he set her down again he put his forehead against hers, fingers tracing the hem of her blouse. “Okay?” he asked, and she nodded. He drew it up over her head slowly, tossing it aside as his lips dipped to her breasts, kissing the soft skin at the top of the bra, hands firm on her hips. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and enjoying his lips, needing more. Her fingers worked her bra clasp, moaning as Logan’s lips found her nipple when she tossed the bra aside.

She was nervous for a moment when he pulled away, looking at her, looking at her body. It had been 10 years since he’d last seen her in this state of undress. She was in great shape, she knew that, but she wasn’t in college anymore and inevitably her body had changed. Yet he looked at her with hunger in his eyes, like he always had when he saw her naked, like they were both still 18 and horny in the way only teenagers in love can be. 

She drew his shirt up over his head and touched the muscles she had been ogling since she had seen him for the first time again in the airport. It was like he was carved out of stone, even his ass, she noted as her hand reached down. She could only imagine that he saw in her eyes the same lust that his eyes had for her. 

His hands guided her back, pushing her to the bed, laying her down. “There’s a joke here somewhere about the prosecution resting,” he said and she laughed as he returned his ministrations to her collarbone for a moment. He trailed down her stomach slowly, kissing above her waistband. Her hips floated up eagerly and he unbuttoned her jeans, peeling them off of her, taking her panties with them, looking as if he was enjoying the view. She had half of a mind to thank herself for packing the nice underwear before he had moved down the bed and was kissing the inside of her thighs. His hands fluttered on her hip bones and outer thighs, holding her still as he traded sides, getting closer and closer to where Veronica needed him. 

She let out an exhale of impatience and he chuckled, holding out on her for just a second longer, teasing her, before dipping his tongue into her. One of her hands found its way into his hair, holding him close as his tongue slowly circled her clit for the first time, making her gasp. He lingered a moment before returning lower, back and forth, until she was clasping at the comforter with her fists. He’d always been good at this, but with a string of half-hearted lovers in the past years she’d forgotten just how good it could be.

She realized his hands were missing from her body and looked down to see that he’d slipped his cock out and was stroking himself gently as his tongue continued its focus on her. She felt herself grow even warmer thinking of how hard he was for her, pleased in some way that he was enjoying this as much as she was. How many times had they done this, at the Neptune Grand or in her bed the rare times her father was conveniently gone? And yet it felt so novel now, like the first time, except without all the teenage awkwardness. How many people felt like they got a second shot at a first time with someone?

“More,” she whispered. He brought his fingers up and she felt one, then two, of them inside of her, tongue now solely dedicated to her clit. He started moving them like he had all the time in the world, slowly working his fingers in and out, gently curling them inside her to brush against her sensitive spot. As her breathing got more ragged he worked faster and he raised his head to watch her, a small smile playing at his lips. She was sure she was smiling too as the waves rose up against her, and her eyes closed with the bliss, crying out as she came, feeling herself grow tight around his fingers. He gently massaged her clit, extending the orgasm until finally it ebbed and she worked to catch her breath again. 

After a moment, he pulled his fingers out of her and she opened her eyes at the sudden absence to see his face back above hers. “I forgot how good you tasted,” he said. She brought his head down, kissing him deeply, tongue slipping inside his mouth, tasting herself on his lips. His skin felt hot where their bodies were touching, he chest grazing her nipples in a delightful way. 

“I do, don’t I?” she asked, smirking when she broke the kiss. 

He groaned with need and stood up, slipping his pants off the rest of the way, before moving back on top of her, hovering for a moment as he looked at her again. She knew it was the implicit question he always asked, always making sure she was okay. She kissed him again as an answer, and her hand reached down to help guide him. 

His fingers had prepared her perfectly, and she was so wet as he slipped in, pausing every few moments to let her get adjusted to him, until he was completely inside her. He started slow, and she looked at him until he picked up speed and it felt so good she had to close her eyes, her hips rising to meet his with every thrust, hands gripping his back.

Normally Veronica found time to think when the average man was fucking her, her restless mind over-analyzing. She couldn’t help it, she got bored. But with Logan the only thoughts she could string together were “more” and “harder” which she whispered to him. He slammed deeper, hitting all the right spots. She felt the waves rising again, stronger this time, and she held onto his arms where his muscles were taut holding himself up. “I’m close,” she managed to breathe out, and he murmured “come for me.” She let go and in a breathless moment she felt herself coming around his cock. His rhythm became erratic, and he was following her over the edge, arms giving out slightly. Veronica held him, and he stayed inside her for a moment afterwards, each of them emerging from the haze of bliss.

Her breathing slowed, and along with that her mind started working again, slowly, habitually trained to start overthinking immediately. When she finally rose to use his bathroom she was almost afraid to look at him. 10 years of longing without even knowing she was longing, all for this perfect moment; what if she looked over at him and simply exploded with all of the emotion? Or what if he wasn’t as happy as she was, what if this didn’t mean to him everything that it had meant to her?

When she returned back to the edge of the bed he pulled her down next to him and kissed the hollow of her neck, sighing with contentment. “I missed you, Veronica,” he said.

“Careful,” she murmured. “I’ll think you just want me for my body.” She was half joking and half actually afraid that now that he had this, now that they were physically together again and the chase was over, he would suddenly lose interest.

“You know that’s not true. It’s always been you, Veronica. It’ll always be you.”

She chanced a glance, ready to see what was on his face, searching for the truth of what this meant to him on his features. Did he mean what he said? He was looking at her, but more than that, he was  _ seeing _ her, like no one in New York saw her, like no one had ever seen her. And she knew this was the only place she could imagine being, right there, in his arms as he pulled her close and she drifted off to sleep, thoughts blissfully quiet. 

***

She woke up before him in the morning. She had always loved his sleeping face, everything smoothed out. No smirk, no glare, just peace, untroubled features.

She wanted to let him rest some more and she slid out of bed trying not to disturb him. She gathered up her clothes, taking in the room as she searched for where on earth she’d thrown her bra. Like the rest of the house this room was simple, sparse. On his dresser she spotted his mother’s lighter, next to a framed photo of her, the only photo she’d seen in the house. Veronica stared Lynn down for a moment. Veronica thought she’d be proud of Logan now, who he’d become.

Veronica made the coffee without having to search through all the cupboards for the grounds this time. Her computer was still at what she now considered her spot at the table. She checked her email; there was no message from Mac with the season ticket holder list yet, but there were three from Jenny demanding various memos. Veronica scrolled through the news sites instead of replying to her. There was a follow-up on the money laundering piece:

**More Local Businesses Identified in Dispensary Fraud**

Veronica skimmed through the article. They were still uncovering the names of some of the businesses Mac had found, including the apiarist and the pizza place. There were more names that they hadn’t found, including a ski supply store in a big resort town, and the reporter implied that this was larger than just the Denver area. Veronica had stumbled onto a state-wide criminal network.

She kept browsing for a while, enjoying the relaxing Saturday morning. That’s the thing she hated most of all about the law firm--they had stolen her casual weekend mornings. 

Logan finally woke up and wandered into the kitchen, only wearing sweatpants. He leaned down and kissed her neck, in that spot she liked so much. “Good morning,” he said, arms around her, speaking into her ear.

“Sleep well?” she asked, when he pulled away after a moment, to pour a cup of coffee, before sitting at the table with her.

“You could have woken me up, I was looking forward to spontaneous morning sex,” he joked. 

“Morning’s not over yet, there’s still time. But Mac should be sending along the list any minute now, so I might be distracted,” she grinned at him.

“You want some breakfast?” he asked, and she nodded. He scrambled eggs and toasted bread for her and she watched him move, so incredibly domestic when he put the plate in front of her, handing her a napkin. 

“Jim is gonna stop by later this afternoon again, if we’re around. I told him you were back in town, he wanted to have a beer with us.”

“Yeah, I don’t know what info we are going to get out of the list, but I’d love to get to know him more if we’re around!” Jim had annoyed her before, but if he was important to Logan she’d be willing to give him a second chance. 

She kept refreshing her email every few minutes, until Logan’s repeated attempts to distract her proved successful and he was carrying her to his bedroom again. And even after that she brought her computer into the bedroom, so the post-sex cuddling could accompany her checking her email, to Logan’s amusement. “Kids these days, always on their devices,” he quipped, planting a kiss on the top of her head.

Veronica was anxious to get this case solved, to get Logan’s name free and clear, to get justice for Trinity, even as in the back of her mind she knew that once the case was over she wouldn’t have an excuse to be out here, and she wasn’t sure what was going to happen after that.

She got a text from Mac: 

_ Unexpected firewall situation. You’ll be happy to know sports teams take their ticket holder privacy very seriously.  _

Appeased by the message and alarmed by the late hour she showered, trying to look halfway presentable for when Jim came over and not like she’d been in Logan’s bed all morning. Logan washed the dishes and Veronica sat at her place, unsurprised that it was yet another sunny day. She felt like she was getting used to the mountain view. They were still fascinating, but now she wasn’t captivated by their mere existence alone, but by how they looked different every day, how even a few hours changed their appearance. These permanent fixtures of the land, ages old, improbably changing, reinvented by the sun shining on them.

Her phone chimed.

_ List is in your inbox. Update me!!! _

Veronica opened it, mentally urging her computer to load the file faster. There were 1,281 names, daunting. But for now she could rule out the names of corporations, making it slightly more manageable, but not really. She glanced through, wondering how on earth she was going to pare this down. A perfectly normal sounding name stuck out at her: James Nelson. She’d read that name somewhere, she knew it.

Logan noticed her change in posture, as she sat up straighter and started typing quickly. “What? Did you find him?”

She didn’t answer. She pulled up the  _ Denver Post _ article from that morning. There, the apiarist from the article that was involved in the whole money laundering thing. James Nelson. Trinity had been killed by her beekeeper boyfriend. Veronica was triumphant. It couldn’t be a coincidence, being both a season ticket holder and part of the Qwik Analytics crime network. She felt it, this was their guy. 

“I think I know who did it!” she was triumphant as she looked at Logan. “It’ll take me a sec to do some verifying, but it’s gotta be this guy.”

Logan looked relieved more than anything. “Thank god, I was worried the list was going to be a bust.”

There was a knock at the door and Logan said, “Shit, that’s probably Jim.”

“Tell him there’s been a break in the case or something, we gotta follow up on this.”

“Hold on, keep searching.” He left to answer the door.

She typed James Nelson’s name into the search bar on Facebook. All she needed was a photo of Trinity and him together. She pulled up the likely profile, and felt her pulse race when she saw the picture. She was looking at an outdated photo, but all the same, she recognized the man. 

Logan was opening the door to Trinity’s murderer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for bearing with me as I slowly update this! Your comments and love are getting me through this semester :) special thanks to my lovely friends Maisa and mer135 for proofreading smut to make sure I'm not embarrassing myself with posting it!


End file.
